Sidereal Confluence in about 3 minutes

Kia Ora and welcome to sidereal confluence in about three minutes this is a game for four to nine players there’s no solo mode playing time is two hours or more it’s a pretty complex game in the dark reaches of space, nine different alien races former Trade Federation setting aside distrust and war they work together to create peace through prosperity can you wheel or deal your way to financial security or will you be left holding ten crates of self-sealing stem bolts you win if at the end of six turns you have the most victory points competitive: only one player can have the strongest economy engine building: your economy will expand and get more efficient as the game goes on trading: this game is all about trading the core of this game is a real-time trading phase that is so frantic and chaotic I could never do it justice this game has a lot of resources three different types of small cube , three large cubes ultratech cylinders, victory points and ships are the main ones in general three small cubes are
worth two large cubes, or an ultra tech, a victory point or three ships but what do you do of all these resources? each player will have cards called converters converters take a set number of resources and turn them into new ones for example oceanic processing turns two green into one brown and a large blue the value shown here is how efficient the converter is this turns two value of cubes into two and a half which is not very efficient there are some converters that need no inputs like this one here this is a research team
card’s with purple arrows can be used during the trading phase and this one allows you to spend the resources shown to get the victory points listed including this turn sharing bonus each new technology also gives you a new converter however, if you look at the bottom of some converters you will see technologies mentioned quantum computing could be kept by itself as a converter or used to flip the other card so it works more efficiently many planets also give free resources and may be upgraded during the trading phase in the trading phase you can trade anything cubes planets converters all of it and all deals are binding Once trading is done you have the industry phase where you can use powers with white arrows run whatever converters you want to and then collect the resources produced then any technologies researched that turn are shared to all other players who either gain them as a converter
or use them to upgrade existing converters finally you use ships to bid on planets with the highest bidder getting first pick of new planets then repeat that process for getting new research teams to discover new technology why would you like this game? Sidereal confluence is an experience, no other way to describe it it has an incredibly hectic trading phase that then transitions into a very detail focused economy phase where you are trying to maximise efficiency what defines the game most though is the complete asymmetry between different alien races all of whom have different strengths and weaknesses the zeth have an economy based on stealing and extorting off other races unity produced special grey cubes that can be used in any converters and the in Eni-et have the most powerful converters in the game, but they’re not allowed to run them themselves so they have to trade them away learning the quirks of each race and how their unique playstyle works is a really wonderful experience the best thing about this game is how you shift from making trades and haggling to building this giant expanding economy no game mixes extroverted and introverted playstyled so vividly for me however this game can just be overwhelming and while the race reference sheets give great advice your first play will likely be a confusing mess of missteps and chaos and like all games involving high social interaction and noisy trading they can be very challenging if you’re not socially confident if you like the concept of alien races but would rather invade someone with spaceships check out Twilight Imperium and for a more straightforward trading game check out the classic chinatown Sidereal Confluence: it’s Chinatown, on steroids, IN SPACE

Leave a Reply
